According to Reynolds, at least two of the three referees had only Bachelor of Arts degrees, and one of the referees had published with Gorka previously, in violation of the academic expectation that reviewers have no personal or other form of interest in the success of a candidate's thesis.[91] Georgetown University associate professor Daniel Nexon reviewed Gorka's Ph.D. thesis, describing it as "inept" and saying "It does not deploy evidence that would satisfy the most basic methodological requirements for a PhD in the US".[86] Nexon ran Gorka's thesis text through plagiarism software, finding that portions of it were "repurposed", and concluded that he "might as well have mail-ordered his Ph.D.".[92]
In 2017, Gorka appeared on Fox News on the evening of the U.S. presidential inauguration wearing a badge, tunic, and ring of the Order of Vitéz.[103][104] This gave rise to claims that Gorka himself is a Nazi sympathizer.[105][106] New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote in April 2017 that Gorka "has been accused of having links to far-right groups in Europe",[68] and The Guardian reported that the Order of Vitez, whose medal Gorka wore to Donald Trump's inaugural ball, "has been linked by some to Nazi colluders".[10
Statements of support for Gorka, which have challenged the description of him as an anti-semite, all predated a 2017 story that connected him with another extreme far-right anti-Semitic group. In a 2007 video, Gorka declared his support for the Magyar Gárda (Hungarian Guard), a paramilitary group described by various sources as neo-fascist and anti-Semitic.[124
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Gorka